by Deidra

My husband and I were married in March and were trying to get pregnant by July. Long before we wed, we discussed how we wanted to start a family immediately. We knew we may not get pregnant right away, but were ill prepared for the path our conception efforts would take.

Because we wanted to get pregnant quickly, I started charting my Basal body temperature from the beginning. It was only three months before we knew something was wrong. I had a flat temperature for three months straight and I had also ceased having a regular monthly cycle. I had recently had a string of urinary tract infections and thought they could be related, so I went to see my OB. She ran some tests and found that I had no trace of infection left, then suggested my lack of menses was due to the stress of getting married and trying to start a family. She said I should relax, practice breathing exercises, and keep a journal. After a few more months and still no regular cycle, I went to a new OB. She also told me that I was causing my own problems through stress and if I just relaxed, I would be fine. A third OB said the same but agreed to do a fertility workup after we’d been trying for a year.

One year after trying to conceive, we started the fertility workups with our new OB. She could find no reason I was not ovulating, so started me on Clomid. The first month of Clomid I ovulated and experienced a chemical pregnancy. That would be the last cycle I would ovulate while on Clomid. My OB tried a series of dosages and varied the days of my cycle the Clomid was taken, but invariably I would end each month with a dosage of progesterone to bring on a cycle so that I could start again. Several months later, I was finally able to get an appointment with an RE.

My RE did a complete fertility workup on both my husband and myself. Everything from PCOS to endometriosis to male factor infertility was ruled out, and we were given the unfortunate diagnosis of “unexplained infertility.” I reminded my new doctor about the repeat UTIs that happened just before our problems started, but he said that infections had already been ruled out and they did not affect our current problems. My RE kept me on Clomid, monitoring me through ultrasound. He said that I was producing follicles, but they were not dropping for some reason. We added an injection of Novarel to my monthly drug cocktail, which was meant to force the follicle to drop, which was followed shortly by IUI. The Novarel did not work; I still did not ovulate.

My husband and I reached the conclusion that we were spending far too much time and money on fertility treatments when we could be devoting our efforts toward adoption. At the end of two years, we agreed on one final month of trying to conceive, then we would start adoption proceedings. I went to my RE with the news and told him that I wanted to try something else. I’d done some research and thought that a stronger drug would be the practical choice for our last ditch effort. My RE agreed to a cocktail of Clomid combined with Repronex, followed by Novarel. At first, it seemed as though the Repronex was not working, so my RE increased the dosage. At that point, my ovaries kicked into overdrive. I produced 20 follicles. Through some fancy dosaging, my RE thought he could get the largest of the follicles to increase in size enough to release while the others stayed behind, hopefully dissolving on their own. In the end, eight of the 20 follicles released and though our RE advised against it (fearing multiples), we continued with the IUI. We became pregnant with a singleton, our son.

After giving birth to our son, we wanted to get pregnant again, but my husband and I agreed that we would not pursue fertility treatments. It was too emotionally and physically draining, and with the money that we might spend on fertility treatments, we could put our son through college! We thought that it would have to happen the old fashioned way or not at all. Our doctors assured us that it would not happen at all as I simply was not ovulating. We still didn’t know why. The latest doctor I had seen had suggested I had andometriosis, a disorder that is undiagnosable without a hysterectomy.

About three more years passed when I decided to dig out a book I had bought just before we got pregnant with our son. It is called “The Infertility Diet” and suggests natural ways to cause one’s body to cooperate. I was still holding onto my idea that the recurrent UTIs from years earlier had contributed in some way to my problems. I learned that andometriosis, like endometriosis, can be caused by the same toxins that contribute to yeast infections and UTIs. Through the infertility diet, I stopped eating any foods that could contribute to the growth of yeast – this included yeasted breads, sugar, and all dairy. At the same time I was training for my first marathon. Toward the end of my marathon training I was finding myself exhausted all the time and after a couple of months on the diet, I had not yet experienced a cycle. I thought that marathon training in conjunction with the dietary change was causing my body too much stress so I decided to start the diet again once the marathon was over.

A few days after the marathon, I found myself very ill. I felt fine except for extreme nausea, which is not uncommon for me after a race. What was uncommon was the amount of time it lasted – after nearly a week of constant illness, my husband picked up a pregnancy test. We were shocked when it was immediately positive – the test line showed before the control lines! A visit with the doctor confirmed the pregnancy. We are now in our 2nd month and are still working on overcoming the shock of getting pregnant without medical intervention!